Magnetic Curses

Has any consider that Dierker may not want to return to managing, and that he likes his current job? Besides what kind of selling job would the Cubs have to do, to even get him to consider the Cubs job? If the Cubs can land him, fine, but my gut feeling is...Dierker may not be available. broadcasting jobs held by non-broadcasters are usually managers-in-waiting, used by former players to stay close to the game while awaiting their next offer. i've assumed that's what brenly is doing, and that's also what i assume dierker's been doing.

as far as landing cabrera, we have nothing that could beat anything that any other team could offer. we have virtually no highly thought of prospects in our system.

juice is not quite ready for prime time, but the arm and legs are there. by the time they're seniors, he and mendenhall should have the illini somewhat respectable again, hopefully.

brady clark and ryan freel, come on down! hendry, give up whatever you must to get these guys, whetever you must!

I think the Farnsworth trade has been considered good for quite a while now. I thought he was traded when his value was its lowest coming off that poor second half. The year after the trade he did very well w/Det and ATL. I didn't have a problem with trading Kyle, the timing didn't work for me. There was a good possibility at the time that Farnsworth would increase his value from the point he was traded from the Cubs, his trade to ATL helped confirm that. Not directed at you Bruno.... Statistically, Novoa has been far from avg., he's been one of the worst. i thought farnsworth was traded because he was regarded as a "clubhouse problem". well, that certainly cleared things up for us.

I believe that Len knows a lot more about stats and the game and what constitutes a good player than he lets on over the course of a broadcast. And I think the Trib probably has something to do with that. i don't know why the trib would stifle kasper's use of sabermetrics during a broadcast, i really don't. if they do, just to listen in on that conversation between he and his producer would be baffling. In other interviews, Len shows more knowledge about the game than he does during Cubs games (like that interview with the Milwaukee guys a few weeks ago). I think he tones it down for games because the audience won't care to hear what he has to say. I don't think the trib stifles him, but he does it on his own. I think it's a personal thing as well. Look for example on how many people on this board try their hardest to not listen to Joe Morgan because of how extreme he is in the other direction. If Len was too far on the numbers side, he realizes that some people would turn him off in much the same way-so to be a good broadcaster, he tries to present a balanced view that represents some part of all the people who listen to him. i don't try "to not listen to joe morgan" because i don't find him offensive. he's said some idiotic things, but he has decent insight into game situations and philosophies, and he definitely understands the importance of OBP. however, if len just used some easy to understand concepts without complicating things with indecipherable sabr stats, he'd be able to get a point across. my stance is that he has no point to get across, other than he likes "fundamentals" and useless sacrifice bunting.

he could spend part of the broadcast attempting to explain simple, non-sabr stats like IsoD or IsoP, the importance of plate discipline. or, as i heard pat and ron talking about the other day, the fact that philadelphia has scored more runs than any other national league team while also leading the league in stranded baserunners. if you get more baserunners, it's easier to score runs, so we don't have to hit 1.000 with runners in scoring position. i think that idea would be well received by a large audience. it's simple, easy to comprehend, and useful to the casual fan. just point out simple connections, relationships, and causations without using the name of billy beane or the term "sabermetrics".

I believe that Len knows a lot more about stats and the game and what constitutes a good player than he lets on over the course of a broadcast. And I think the Trib probably has something to do with that. i don't know why the trib would stifle kasper's use of sabermetrics during a broadcast, i really don't. if they do, just to listen in on that conversation between he and his producer would be baffling.

no one can just say that hendry won't be fired because he signed an extension. if he continued to work until the end of his contract and then wasn't re-upped, we wouldn't say that he was fired, we would just say that he wasn't retained. people get fired all of the time, especially GM's and managers, and by "fired", i don't mean that they simply were allowed to complete the terms of their contracts and then weren't re-signed. that said, he won't be fired this offseason unless something crazy happens. but he will, most likely, be fired after next season. there is absolutely no way that a guy with the philosophies that hendry carries can build a playoff team by next year, no way. the players he likes are bad, and he will probably acquire some terrible ones.

seconded.

I say NO to Zito because he will command too much money and IMO not worth it for a 3.5era pitcher. I would love to have Schmidt but only for a 2 year deal which is unlikely. I would like to see Lilly to be honest. Z, Hill, Lilly, Guzman, Prior/Mateo/Marmol/Marshall Yeah, it's not the best rotation but it might work out. zito has a career 3.54 era in the AMERICAN LEAGUE. his career era+ is 129, quite worthy of whatever contract he is offered. He's going to command about 15 million per year. No way in the world is he worth that. He's not an "elite" pitcher. Plus, he's not going to come to Chicago. It's not even worth discussing. you know this for a fact, or are you just speculating? he's 28, has 101 big league wins, a 129 era+ and not an "elite" pitcher? Yes. Zito will get 15 a year. Boston will need to spend to get themselves out of the Beckett trade fiasco, and the Yankees simply don't care what they spend as long as they get the player they want. It will be a massive bidding war. i don't think he'll get that much, but even if he does, he's worth it.

I say NO to Zito because he will command too much money and IMO not worth it for a 3.5era pitcher. I would love to have Schmidt but only for a 2 year deal which is unlikely. I would like to see Lilly to be honest. Z, Hill, Lilly, Guzman, Prior/Mateo/Marmol/Marshall Yeah, it's not the best rotation but it might work out. zito has a career 3.54 era in the AMERICAN LEAGUE. his career era+ is 129, quite worthy of whatever contract he is offered. He's going to command about 15 million per year. No way in the world is he worth that. He's not an "elite" pitcher. Plus, he's not going to come to Chicago. It's not even worth discussing. you know this for a fact, or are you just speculating? he's 28, has 101 big league wins, a 129 era+, and is about to break the 200 inning mark for the 6th straight time and not an "elite" pitcher? wow.

jones is very tradeable, however, we will have to eat a bit of his deal.

is it just lip service when kasper gushes on and on about a sac bunt by the #2 hitter in the first inning? is he just trying to be liked by upper management when he talks at length about "fundamentals" or is he just trying to not get beaten up by brenly? kasper wouldn't impress me as GM, he can just stay in the booth, mention WARP once or twice a year to impress the sabr crowd, and then laud some hitter for "putting the ball in play" or "moving a runner over" and not get called out on it. kasper is no stat-head.

I say NO to Zito because he will command too much money and IMO not worth it for a 3.5era pitcher. I would love to have Schmidt but only for a 2 year deal which is unlikely. I would like to see Lilly to be honest. Z, Hill, Lilly, Guzman, Prior/Mateo/Marmol/Marshall Yeah, it's not the best rotation but it might work out. zito has a career 3.54 era in the AMERICAN LEAGUE. his career era+ is 129, quite worthy of whatever contract he is offered. lilly is just not that good. he's never thrown 200 innings in a year and his era plus is 97, not good. tell me, why do you like lilly, again?

I am loving Hill, but if he can be the cheap centerpiece to net us a proven player like that, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It really wouldn't hurt to shop around to teams like the Reds/Yanks/Mets/Marlins/Red Sox/etc.. I'd certainly do that trade too. As a matter of fact, I think you can only find one group of people that wouldn't do that trade. The Marlins. You would have to throw in Pie to get that deal done. Definitely. And I would, too. if i was going to throw in pie, i'd subtract hill and add marshall to the deal.

why not? big, fast, raw. he's got potential if he can overcome his injury and drug problems.

The question is, were they willing to do this a month ago? This seems like a move purely out of desperation and most teams aren't this desperate in July. Still a gosh awful trade for San Diego but I'm not sure this was available to Hendry. well, then hendry should have hung on to maddux until a decent prospect became available. If he didn't like Izturis and just took him to get something then yes he should have waited, but a deal was presented where we got someone of value and Hendry felt that Izzy was of adequate value for Maddux. I'm not defending acquiring Izturis right now, what I'm defending is that the Kottaras deal may have not been available to Hendry at the point when he made the deal. Maybe he still takes Izzy, maybe not, only he can answer that. i don't know what's worse, not waiting to receive full value on maddux or believing that izturis (one of the worst full time hitters that the big leagues have seen in a very long time) "was of adequate value" for him. if either is the case, hendry should be fired immediately.

what a bunch of happy losers, just what we all wanted when we got rid of perceived problems. will the "clubhouse contingent" now concede that being happy or having "chemistry" doesn't necessarily make for a winning team?

the point of abuck's statements, which i don't have a problem with at all, were to show that many advocated his departure from the team prematurely, even when he had showed so much promise in the minor leagues. no one wanted to give the kid enough time to show that he has some big league stuff--which is very apparent now. you can't just bring a guy up and expect him to have success--which is exactly what prior and wood had when they came up. few of you have patience with young pitching. it's like, if they aren't phenoms right away we should sack them, and if they're past phenoms, we should sack them for no other reason than they dissapointed us by not being superhuman forever and all of the time.

i agree that getting two top of the rotation starters like schmidt and zito would help fix this team. but if acquiring a guy who would make the top of the order look good was possible, i'd say dump pierre. his speed does not at all make him comparable to a guy like brady clark, who looks to be expendable in milwaukee with the acquisition of nix and the emergence of gross. clark in CF automatically makes the cubs better offensively. I'd be a bit worried about a player like Brady Clark. He has had 2 good seasons, and only 1 season with over 400 AB's. He is 33, and Pierre's OPS is 15 points better than Clark this year. There is no history of production to count on, and he is at a time of his career where this year certainly could be him tailing off. While I don't want to sign Pierre to a multi-year deal, neither do I think that trading for Clark would be worth it-he's simply not likely to give you the amount of production you need to be worth the trade. i'm not sure why you object to anyone bringing up a player with a high OBP to supplant pierre. in a seasons in which he's gotten 300 or more ABs, he hasn't put up less than a .330 OBP, which is much lower than his career OBP, which is .361. recently he's been slumping, and his OBP has fallen from .380 to .363 in the last couple of weeks, but i'll wager that he'll put up a .370 or better OBP for the third straight season. something that pierre can only dream about. defensively, he's no downgrade to pierre, either. i wouldn't count on a major decline from 33-34, i'd expect his OBP to remain static and his defense to be adequate. clark is as solid player that you can count on to get on base. he'll also be cheaper than pierre next season, probably half as expensive. If Clark and Pierre were both in FA next year, and if they were my two final options, then I would choose Clark. I just don't think he's worth the amount it would take to trade for him for the upgrade that it would be to Pierre (but know that I am not for re-signing Pierre to a multi-year deal either-I would rather go a completely different direction). Also, I simply don't think Clark is nearly the best option out there. for the price that he would command and the production that he would give, he'd be worth it. hendry could then focus at upgrading the corner spots and second base.

i agree that getting two top of the rotation starters like schmidt and zito would help fix this team. but if acquiring a guy who would make the top of the order look good was possible, i'd say dump pierre. his speed does not at all make him comparable to a guy like brady clark, who looks to be expendable in milwaukee with the acquisition of nix and the emergence of gross. clark in CF automatically makes the cubs better offensively. I'd be a bit worried about a player like Brady Clark. He has had 2 good seasons, and only 1 season with over 400 AB's. He is 33, and Pierre's OPS is 15 points better than Clark this year. There is no history of production to count on, and he is at a time of his career where this year certainly could be him tailing off. While I don't want to sign Pierre to a multi-year deal, neither do I think that trading for Clark would be worth it-he's simply not likely to give you the amount of production you need to be worth the trade. i'm not sure why you object to anyone bringing up a player with a high OBP to supplant pierre. in a seasons in which he's gotten 300 or more ABs, he hasn't put up less than a .330 OBP, which is much lower than his career OBP, which is .361. recently he's been slumping, and his OBP has fallen from .380 to .363 in the last couple of weeks, but i'll wager that he'll put up a .370 or better OBP for the third straight season. something that pierre can only dream about. defensively, he's no downgrade to pierre, either. i wouldn't count on a major decline from 33-34, i'd expect his OBP to remain static and his defense to be adequate. clark is as solid player that you can count on to get on base. he'll also be cheaper than pierre next season, probably half as expensive.

we don't have any prospects. murton could be good but cedeno is terrible, the only other option i could see is bringing moore up to play third and using the ramirez money on pitching.

i agree that getting two top of the rotation starters like schmidt and zito would help fix this team. but if acquiring a guy who would make the top of the order look good was possible, i'd say dump pierre. his speed does not at all make him comparable to a guy like brady clark, who looks to be expendable in milwaukee with the acquisition of nix and the emergence of gross. clark in CF automatically makes the cubs better offensively. remember the 2004 cards and the 2003 second half cubs had very deep rotations. you can win with great pitching, but if it fails, you turn to offense, meaning OBP and SLG, not slapping the ball around the diamond in a desperate attempt not to strike out. lineup management? man, dusty's philosophy is the same as hendry's, hendry will most likely get some guy with baseball ideas similar to his own. he will continue to acquire guys that "put the ball in play" at the expense of OBP and SLG. and besides, i'm not sure what girardi has proven, it's documented that things wouldn't be the same if he didn't have beinfest and loria breathing down his neck--it's not girardi's choice to play the young guys. girardi is doing what those two want, which is why he hates it in florida and may be available. he'd probably turn out much like dusty in a couple of years in chicago. the marlins front office is showing why the front office is so valuable, which is what billy beane has done for years in oakland. managers should be puppets and puppets only. unfortunately, we do not have a good front office, so the manager is in charge of making up for their mistakes in chicago, which is not a good situation for anybody to be in. i predict that it will end badly for any and all cub managers while hendry is calling the shots, no matter how good they are.

why eyre and howery haven't done bad, admittedly we over-paid but it is the cast of characters around them that have made the pen look bad i think that hendry was simply polishing the brass on the titanic when he signed howry and eyre. he likes to do that. he'd rather increase the team's speed than fix the hole in the hull.